Personally and professionally
by sparrow19
Summary: Mackenzie is struggling with the disposition and Will doesn't really understand why. Spoilers from the season 2 promo.


**This is my first attempt of fan fiction so please bare this in mind when reading. I just felt I had to write a story for Will and Mac. I own nothing.**

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Will didn't even flinch.

"No one responsible for operation genoa will ever work again including the anchor and executive producer of the broadcast"

They would. Will wasn't sure of much right now but one thing he knew for certain was that they weren't going down for this. Will McAvoy and MacKenzie McHale were full of flaws and contradictions, she despises lying and is full of hope yet cheated and allowed fear to ruin the most important relationship of her life whilst he is rude, curt and wholeheartedly pessimistic apart from when he was with her. When he was so full of love and affection. Despite these faults they have both only ever broadcast news they were convinced was right.

So he listens with no great panic as Rebecca reels off their apparent offences.

ooo

Mackenzie did flinch.

She had made the team scour over sources for hours and treated genoa more seriously than any other story she had ever written. The more she questions herself though the more she realises she had broken one of the first rules of journalism; never decide what you want the story to be before you have all the facts. Genoa had excited her in a journalistic way more than any story ever had. The fact that she had the opportunity to do it with her team and an anchor like Will McAvoy wasn't an opportunity she was going to miss out on. Now though she was questioning those decisions. Why did she have to want it so much? Should she have waited longer? Tried to find more sources? Listened to Charlie when he told them from the start something did feel right? The worst part was she couldn't help but draw parallels from the other major thing in her life she had screwed up.

She had destroyed their personal relationship, but Will had let her come back and build a working relationship. The last two and a half years have been the best professional years of her life, she was so happy at News Night. If she couldn't have Will to go home to at night then at least she had him during the day. She was good for him, that she knew. He was treading water when she arrived and as he began to thaw towards her, Will McAvoy the star pitcher started to return. The people in the focus groups that liked him before had no idea what he could be, in fact Will had managed to hide his brilliance from pretty much everyone apart from her and Charlie, but now he was turning up 5 nights a week in houses around the country to report the news the way it should be done.

So as she listened to Rebecca tell her that he would never work again she wondered how, out of all the people in the world, the one she had managed to destroy personally and professionally was the man she loved the most.

ooo

"Jesus Christ Maggie how many times have we been through this? Get it together!"

It had been five hours since the deposition and Mackenzie was stressed. She knew she had taken it out on the staff and was flying of the handle at every opportunity but she couldn't help it. She had spent the time since just thinking about all the mistakes they might have made, all the things they should have done differently and what on earth would she do if she couldn't spend every day working with Will. She turned her back on a very sheepish Maggie and stormed into her room making it very clear that no one was to follow.

The broadcast that night had gone fine, which Mackenzie would admit had more to do with Will, Jim and the staff keeping it together rather than her doing her job well. She didn't know why no one else was stressed. Charlie had looked a little phased but had just offered a shrug and a "things will work out eventually" comment as his comfort, whilst Will seemed to just be pissed off that he had to spend two hours of his day in a room answering questions rather than having any real fear about the future of their show or the future of his career. Maybe it's because he wouldn't care. No, she shook that thought from her head straight away; no matter what Will might say or what impression he might give she knew he was deeply invested in this show and loved doing it as much as she did.

After watching Mackenzie do a great impression of him circa early 2010 he had decided he would speak to her after the show that night. He had no real idea why she was so agitated and worked up about this deposition. He knew it didn't look good but they had done everything by the book, even if genoa turned out to be all completely false it wouldn't be the end of News Night.

ooo

When Will knocked and walked into her office Mackenzie was swivelled round in her chair staring at the window.

"You're doing an awfully good impression of me at the moment Mac and I gotta tell you I think it's confusing the staff. They thought I was the one they had to run in fear of. Honestly if you had decided to start playing bad cop you really should have given me the heads up"

Mackenzie whipped herself round in the chair. "I have no idea how you can take this so lightly. Do you not understand what is happening here Will? They're going to force us out and it's not like a sacking from Leona. They're going to disgrace us as journalists, rip away our integrity."

Mackenzie delivered her statement with so my force Will was shocked. He knew she was worked up and anxious about the deposition but he didn't expect this. He did what he always wanted to do when she was like this – offer her comfort. He walked closer to perch on the side of her desk and look in her eyes.

"Mac that won't happen. This isn't a crime that can be punished like that. We got two sources, we spent days deliberating on whether to go. We asked for comments, at any point someone could have told us we were so far from being in the right place with this that we had to squash the story but we were just met with silence. Journalists have declared people dead when they're alive, claimed the government were responsible for 9/11 and reported that our President is in fact Kenyan and haven't even been off the air a night. Why would it be different for us?" Will's voice was light and he held a smirk on his face that told her he really didn't get why she was so worried. He wasn't just trying to comfort her with his words, he really believed that they would be fine.

"Because it's you and me. We have no friends out there Will, we've pissed them all off as we've attacked them throughout the last two years. And you honestly think the owner of ACN is sat on the 44th floor trying to protect us. She failed to get you cut last time and this is the perfect opportunity for her to try again." Mackenzie desperately tried to make Will see that he, for once, was being too naïve and innocent when looking at this.

"Mackenzie" Will took her hands into his own whilst saying her name in a way that commanded her to look at him. "Even if you are that worried, which you obviously are, why aren't you working a plan to fight our corner, finding evidence to prove innocence, working hard to produce a show every night that says 'ah screw them _this _is what we do'. You never deal with a problem by being so defeatist."

"I just can't believe I'm going to ruin this as well" she whispered.

"What are you talking about?"

"News Night. I mean I ruined our relationship and now we're as close as we've been in six years and I'm about to bring this down in flames as well. I don't think I can handle it"

"Woah, woah. Firstly why are you saying 'you'. We decided to run this story as a team, from Charlie down. The only thing that you can be held responsible for is the way we did it well and the fact we can count on every person out there to do their job correctly as you taught them all how to do the news. And this, I mean, this isn't linked to our relationship Mac. Why are you talking about that? I don't…I really don't want you to be still taking about taking the blame for that Mackenzie." Will managed to choke the last part out. He didn't want to do this now, but he really needed her not to be like this anymore. Not to always be so ready to blame herself.

"But it was my fault Billy. You didn't go off and sleep with your ex-girlfriend for four months". Mackenzie said this harshly whilst pulling her hands from his. She was frustrated. She didn't want comforting words that weren't matched by a willingness to move on. Will did still blame her, surely if he had forgiven her they wouldn't be sat across from each other as colleagues.

"I don't want to talk about fault Mackenzie. I don't want you still to be hurting about this."

"What are you not still hurting? Are you over it? I think that would hurt even more than your anger." Mackenzie added quietly. The thought that Will was okay about the deposition, regardless of result , and being so kind to her now, because he could handle change and he didn't need to be with her was more terrifying than she could ever admit to anyone. What if Will was over her?

Will looked at how emotional she was and realised that a big part of the issue was that she was scared that if there was no more News Night then that would mean no more them. Okay, he thought, now was the time to take the plunge.

"I am over it? Mackenzie since the day I met you I have been trying to control so many different emotions. I tried so hard not to be as madly in love with you as I was when we first met, tried to be calm and talk myself down from proposing on the second date. I tried to control being so possessive when we were dating knowing that it was too much, I've tried to not be angry at you after what happened to rid myself of that image. And I've tried so, so hard to forgive to get passed what happened. But not once have I ever tried to get over you. It's the only advice everyone insisted of giving me after you left "Will you just need to get over it and let it go", I've never in my life dedicated anytime to something that I knew to be impossible. Mackenzie I will never be over you."

Mackenzie didn't know what to say. She was dumbfounded, and despite the seriousness of the situation and the fact that Will hadn't said he had managed to forgive her or that he had gotten over the anger, she couldn't prevent the smile forming on her face. Will McAvoy still loved her.

"I'm not sure that smiling weirdly to yourself was the response I was expecting there Mac, but I suppose it's better than how you looked 5 minutes ago."

Mackenzie stood up to stand in front of him as he was still perched on the edge of her desk. "Will I'm going to ask you three questions and your answer is going to be yes each time. Okay you got that". Will nodded as Mackenzie was now staring him down. He could feel her legs pressed against his and begged that he wasn't going to let her down now knowing that they were edging towards a seismic shift in their relationship.

"Do you forgive me?"

"Yes" Will answered strongly and surprisingly easily. He was ready. Maybe all he ever needed was for her to ask.

"Do you love me?" Mackenzie continued to stare straight into his eyes, giving of an air confidence that didn't necessarily exist.

"Yes" again the answer came out easily, along with a grin that was replicated on her face until Mackenzie gulped and looked at him and solemnly asked him the most important question of all.

"Do you trust me?"

Will wove his fingers through hers as he replied "yes. More than anyone."

With that answer Mac instantly sought out his lips with hers. Her kiss was grateful. Grateful that this man loved her enough to forgive the biggest betrayal, loved her enough to banish his pride and take her back and loved her enough to trust her not to break them all over again.

Mackenzie's kiss might have been full of gratefulness and tenderness, but that was going to last. Will had waited for five years to feel this again. He quickly deepened the kiss and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist. He knew they couldn't rush anything and he had no idea how they went about having a relationship. Did they go on a first date again? Could it even be called a first date? Right now though he didn't care about any of the issues that would come tomorrow, he was crushing her with his arms and his lips were pressing against her jaw, neck and anywhere else he could get too. He loved her so very deeply and this seemed to be the best way to convey that right now.

Mackenzie realised that they were quickly approaching a time where standing up against a desk wasn't going to be satisfying anymore so she reluctantly pulled away, leaning her forehead on his.

"Do I get to ask you some questions now?" Will whispered, coming to terms with the fact that he was no longer kissing her senseless.

"I suppose that's only fair. I am allowed to choose my own answers?"

"Yeah. I need to hear you honestly Mac."

Mac took in a breath fearing what was coming.

"Do you forgive me?" he, as she had earlier, stared directly into her eyes as he asked and like Will, Mackenzie stared straight back whilst answering in the strongest voice she could find. "Yes"

"Do you trust me?"

"I've never, ever had anything but total faith in you Will McAvoy"

Will braced himself. This was the only question he needed to an answer to. He would forgive and forget everything so long as she always answered yes to this, "do you love me?"

Mackenzie saw the emotion swirling in his blue eyes. Again she couldn't help smiling knowing her answer was going to give great happiness to both of them. She brought her hand up to caress his face and answered in a loving tone "now and always".

Just as Will had made Mackenzie move earlier those words from Mackenzie gave Will no option but to grasp her face in both his hands and begin kissing her.

Will was again enjoying himself too much when Mackenzie pulled herself away from the kiss.

"Will" she whispered "I'm not worried about the deposition anymore."


End file.
